Being overly dependent on Wiki is never a good idea. Like almost all philosophers, she has both her fans and her detractors. I recommend her novel, The Fountainhead, as a painless way into her philosophy, which focus on the importance and worth of “the individual”.
When did it become controversial to recognize that Rand was a selfish, dipshit flake?
My guees is that Martin meant “you” to refer to people with an IQ of over 70.
I don’t know when you were in grad school but back when I worked in the graduate admissions office for the UT Civil Engineering office, there was a big thing about how easy it was for the Chinese to submit fake TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and GRE scores. I’d process lots of apps from China that had perfect English GRE scores (which is danged hard for a native speaker) and there was evidently a huge cheating ring in mainland China. Consequently, applications from China were regarded with a high degree of scepticism for exactly the reasons you mentioned.
I certainly think that socio-economic concerns are important. I also think that it is not enough to say that poor Blacks are in the same position as poor Whites and that affluent Blacks are in the same position as affluent Whites so lets differentiate based on socioeconomic status alone. Unless you don’t acknowledge that historical racism accounts for the relatively poor socioeconomic status of the Black community, I think you would have to acknowledge that racial preferences is fair method of reversing some of the effects of that racism. I also think that racism exists today, its not as debilitating in the past but I think it still exists, it exists when investment bankers, and corporate lawyers and executives tell each other jokes when no minorities are around, heck sometimes even when there are minorities present. I know this for a fact, I am Asian and for some reason some people feel comfortable telling black jokes around me as if I won’t immediately suspect that they tell Asian jokes when I am not around.
I don’t see why this defies logic. If your parents were poor and kept that way by society, would you be in the same position as other children even if noone ever discriminated against you in any way? Of course that is not the case here, the case here would be, if I enslaved your parents ancestors for centuries and then I discriminated against them for another century during which time I kept your parents poor (and often in fear for their lives) and then I didn’t try to keep you poor but I still harbored racist attitudes about you, are you in the same position as any other child?
Part of your premise seems to be that racism doesn’t exist anymore. There are still people living today that used to hang Blacks in the south for trying to vote. We are not that far removed in time from the ugliest forms of racism.
Part of your premise seems to be that there is no real difference between poor Appalachian Whites and poor Blacks.
This defies all reason.
I know, I know! …ummm race?
I know I may catch some flak for this statement, but Asians got to where they are primarily through a hard work ethic and their willingness to put up with the bullshit they got and still keep on trucking. It should upset a person of any race to have the sweat and blood they poured in to get to where they are now undermined by another individual who wants to ride by on their race alone without putting in the same effort. In fact it is angering me now that there are more and more Asians starting to take the whiny route who are trying to buy success based off injustices their ancestors experienced.
It amazes me that more people aren’t insulted when they are offered benefits from AA as to me that is racism at it’s worse. You are essentially coddling a person and saying I know you can’t make it on your own merits, so because your {insert group} we’ll give you a head start. It’s offensive and belittling to the individual.
Additionally, it is wrong to make private employers hire people that they otherwise wouldn’t, even if it is due to racism.
I recall reading studies that prove, on average, whites make more than Asians. I will try to dig those studies back up, but will post any that apply, even if they prove I recall incorrectly.
I am still looking for the study that I remember reading years back, but as of 2004 it seems that Asians do have the highest median income and the greatest proportion of college graduates of any group.
Since I don’t know what a plastic Paddy is (and also the fact that a careful examination of family geneology reveals that at least some of my ancestors ate their fair share of potatos), I’m going to have to retract my prohibition against the Irish… so, fine, they’re in!
So what were the choices again? Oh, screw it: NO BELGIANS!!
Ah yes, this brave new world with such people in it that think only white people can ever cry racism.
I agree with your second point, but as to your first- if you kill all your enemies, the war ends, doesn’t it? 
Seven words into my post, I said I was in high school two years ago.
Thatd make me 20, by the way.
Did you mean, “never cry racism”? I have certainly heard that, even flat out here on these very boards. I have never heard what you said even intimated in a very subtle way by the biggest red neck racists I’ve ever had the displeasure to meet.
Mybe I’m reading these wrong, but what I’m getting is that Asian students have to over-achieve to get into good schools. What exactly has this to do with AA?
No, it’s not a fair method. Reversing something that is wrong doesn’t always get you the right answer. Because, to make an awful pun, things are not always black or white. A system that favors blacks, in any form, is just as bad as a system that favors whites. The correct answer is to have no favoratism whatsoever. The only measuring stick between people should be merit, and merit can only include the actions that each individual has personally done. Furthermore, exactly what actions count as merit depends on the situation. This is why Affirmative Action is not the right answer.
It does still exist with certain people. But that doesn’t matter. In America, it doesn’t matter what people think, even if what they think is horribly offensive. What matters is what they do. And, within the confines of a privately owned company, they can follow whatever hiring practices they like. Our job is to make them regret it financially, not politically, if they do things that we, the public, do not like.
If the folks at work are making you uncomfortable with tacky jokes, don’t be a doormat to them. Just abruptly say “I have to go now. I’ll talk to you next time” with out any hemming or hawing. Not “okay, well then, I guess I’ll see you next time.” No. “I have to go now. I’ll talk to you next time.” This works especially well if the jokes are being traded between a small group of people. Be sure to say it very loudly so that you get the attention of everyone else in the room.
Note, however, that “Asian” is a monolithic label; there are discrepancies within the group, as noted on that page:
Also, Asian households tend to have multiple generations–working generations–living under the same roof, and that skews the data upward. After all, if mom, dad, son, and daughter are all working…
You said in a previous post:
Aren’t Asians usually characterized as the “model minority”, which, although not necessarily good (stereotype) would be helpful in this case?
I was just showing you taht being Asian doesn’t help get into schools.
I thought Affirmative Action selected against Asians in academia.
I think we all agree that merit should be the measuring stick, we all agree that there should not be any favoritism (try telling the ivy leagues not to favor legacies but thats an entirely different thread). How exactly do you get to a system of no favoritism when there is systemis discrimination against Blacks? You can’t just wave your hand and make the system fair. It requires integrating Blacks into the system and that is going to require some levelling of then playing field. That might mean that we try to reverse the effects of past discrimination.
What people think affects what they do, their preconceptions can shape their opinions. I’ll give you an example: most of the people I work with graduated from an ivy league level school but we also hire from local schools to fill out the ranks. When someone from Stanford screws up, the sentiment is often “well, everyone is human and we all make mistakes” but when someone from the local school screws up the sentiment is often “why do we hire such boobs?”
Even private companies are subject to federal anti-discrimination laws. Do you think the “market” is going to do anything to solve this problem? The market is very good at a handful of things, eliminating discrimination is not one of them otherwise we woudn’t have had discrimination in the South for almost a century after emancipation.
Ok, now how does Affirmative Action change this for this group?